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Iran Cuts Import Duties on Steel Products

The Iranian government has decreased the import duties on different steel products with immediate effect, according to a recent official notice. For semi-finished steel the duty was reduced from 15 % to 5 %, while most hot-rolled strips saw duties reduced from 20 % to 15 %. For HRC below 3 mm thick, the duty was halved from 20 % to 10 %, Platts reported.

The reduction was, however, not enough, Iran Syndicate of Steel Pipe & Profile Manufacturers General Secretary Amirhossein Kaveh said. "The import duty of 10 % is still a barrier to improving import availability considering the downstream industries need to import a portion of their required steel – especially for low thickness strips," Kaveh said.

Iran's steel imports were slow now as a result of the high duties and the weaker currency in the last two months, he added. Producers are, however, not happy with the reduction in import duties. Iran imported 1.2 million tons of finished steel over the first seven months of the current Iranian year, according to the Iranian Steel Producers' Association (ISPA), down a third from the same period of last year. It imported 26,000 tons of semi-finished products during the same period, down 83 % year on year, ISPA added. - Iran Daily